What does it mean to be human? How does living in community shape what it means to be human? What does relationship with God have to do with living our humanity in all our fullness and wholeness? These are the questions that these scriptures ask.
Genesis tells of Adam and Eve, of the choices that they make - the same choice that we all make as human beings: to mistrust each other and the intentions of God, to live in a way that is self-centered and even self-aggrandizing. The story deconstructs us - forcing us to face the same question that they did. What is the meaning of life? How do we make meaning of life? What does it mean that we are created to live from and into community?
Matthew 4 tells us the story of the temptations of Jesus - to take God's place, to want to big bigger than we are, to mistrust and choose power over solidarity, tyranny over collaboration, isolation over community.
So what does it mean for us to be human? How do we maintain our full humanity in the face of the world we live in? Genocide, Abortion, Nuclear Warfare, Global Capitalism, Pharmaceutical testing in Africa, the polarization of our red-blue political context, the cultural wars in which we live. How do we live as fully human, treating others in that same way? Is it a power
that we have? Or does such ethical responsibility have to be given to us by the divine?Two things struck me in my reflection on these passages:
1. Cubism - an art movement of the past century that basically sought to deconstruct and the reconstruct what was seen and experienced by the artist in order to empower us to question what is and how we live. It's the means to an end of having a wider perspective of what is from diverse points of view and origin. This painting of "Adam and Eve" by Marc Chagall does that - in the same way that the story of the Temptation in the garden deconstructs our humanity.
2. A song by Madonna - Nothing Really Matters - maybe not on the same artistic scale as Chagall, but in terms of contemporary culture - however Hollywood driven it may be - the words and story she tells echo the same deconstruction of what it means to be human and live in community.
So how do we live as human beings in our emerging post-modern world? What is the connection between living in community and living in relationship with the divine?
1 comment:
reading your blog at work; it reminds me how thoughtful a community pastor you are! Have a great sunday.
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